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The Magical Thinking of Faith Alone
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 20, 2023
We don't really believe in magic anymore: no one thinks I could make a rabbit pop out of a hat by any means other than mere trickery. But we still do fall into a kind of "magical thinking" when it comes to faith. That is, we believe that if we say the right words or go through the right motions it will magically make us into new people. But the only way to actually change is to do the hard work of changing yourself. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (15m 14s)
Prayer, 3: A Community of Prayer
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 06, 2023
Our final sermon on prayer will focus on prayers for other people. It’s hard to know exactly what these prayers do; they might not be as obvious as prayers for our own spiritual growth or that have to do with our personal relationship with the Lord. But when we pray for other people we are joined together in a heavenly community, one that turns to the Lord and looks to Him as the One who brings us all together. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Prayer 2 - The Power of Prayer
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 30, 2023
Last week we looked at how to pray. But this week we examine the question, what does prayer do? There are many answers to this question, and as many answers as to what prayer does NOT do that we wish it did. But at heart, prayer connects us to the Lord, so that we can receive His power to be reborn and regenerated. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Prayer, 1 - The Practice of Prayer
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 23, 2023
We are starting a three-part series on prayer. This week the focus is on the practice of prayer, practice both in the sense of applying an idea to real life and an activity done with the intention of improving. Because I would guess that most of us (not all, but most) could use some improvement in our prayer lives. The New Church has something of a history of being stiff and uncomfortable with prayer. This series will be an opportunity to become more active with our prayers and appreciate the power that prayer has. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Turning to the Lord
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 16, 2023
Life is at times sunny and bright, and we keenly feel the Lord’s presence. At other times life is dark and stormy, and the Lord seems absent. We move from one state to another. The Lord, on the other hand, is constant: appearances to the contrary, He never ceases to bless our lives with love and wisdom. It is up to us to practice turning back to Him, so that we can realize what has been true all along: that He has been at our side, loving and guiding us, through all the states of life. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Good vs Right
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 09, 2023
Which matters more: being good or being right? As a church we know that both matter, and at the same time that goodness is the more important of the two. Yet often we can switch things around and put way too much emphasis on being right to the detriment of being good, This Sunday we will look at the letter to the Church in Ephesus, which urges those who put great weight in being right to focus more on doing good. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (14m 01s)
Memorial Service for Lisa Mansfield
Memorial Service - July 07, 2023
Memorial Service for Lisa Mansfield | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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The Gift of Responsibility
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 02, 2023
| By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Uncertainty
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 25, 2023
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.” (Matthew 6:34) This simple phrase holds immense power. It’s easy to become caught up in what the future holds: worry, anxiety, fear. Our instinct is to reach for certainty and take control to make sure everything works out. This pattern becomes exhausting and is futile. Yet when we listen to the Lord we can let go of the need for certainty and instead hope, with the sure trust that the Lord will lead us through all hardships. This week, when you worry about the future, change that worry into a hope. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (15m 53s)
New Church Essentials - The Word
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 18, 2023
One of the central teachings of the New Church is that the Word has a deeper, spiritual meaning. This meaning runs through every story, every phrase, and even every word. This Sunday we'll talk about this deeper spiritual sense, and why it was revealed only hundreds of years after the Word was written, and the role it plays in the establishment of the New Church. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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New Church Essentials - Life
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 11, 2023
This week we continue with the them of the essentials of the New Church, in other words, the core ideas that define what the New Church actually is. Last week we looked at a unique view of God. This week our focus is on life. In the New Church one of the central teachings is that we must follow the Lord’s teachings, and it is only through this that we can receive salvation and eternal life. In the book of Revelation we see images of what it means to truly live what we believe and fight mightily to put it into practice. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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New Church Essentials - The Lord
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 04, 2023
Our sermon series for New Church Day is going to be three parts. What's new about the New Church? We're going to look at what's new about an idea of the Lord, what's new about how you live your life, what's new about an understanding of the Lord's Word. The first one about the Lord, which we're going to do this Sunday, is going to be all about the oneness of God. How, when we look at the Lord Jesus Christ, we're seeing the fullness of God. We're seeing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all of it together in this one person who we can go to, relate to, have a relationship with, learn from, and worship. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Thirsty for Truth
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - May 28, 2023
It turns out that we don’t have all the answers and that we don’t have life more figured out than anyone else. When life gets hard we can quickly go from self-satisfied to despairing over ever knowing how to overcome our troubles. While we might seek to avoid this trap of thinking we have everything figured out only to have it all crash down around us, it is inevitable. Thankfully the Lord uses this experience to lead us to a place of true peace and contentment. This process is laid out for us in the story of Hagar and Ishmael. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Two Become One
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - May 21, 2023
Marriage is all about two people becoming one person. But that isn't always what it feels like. It can feel more like two butting heads or missing each other entirely or being together in person but isolated in mind or heart. So how do two become one? What does it take to fulfil that promise of marriage? | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Honouring Mothers
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - May 14, 2023
The 4th Commandment directs us to “honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which Jehovah your God is giving you.” I hope you have a chance today to do some of that honouring. But of course, this commandment goes far beyond just one day of the year and beyond just one earthly mother. More broadly we can reflect on how we honour motherhood in general, and how those qualities of motherhood come into our spiritual practices. Whether your mother is still here or has passed on, whether your relationship with your mother is deep, conflicted, or non-existent, it is possible to honour spiritual motherhood. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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As in Heaven so Upon the Earth
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - May 07, 2023
The Teachings of the New Church describe heaven as a place of beauty and peace. Some of the passages go into intricate detail as to what we can expect there. But although heaven is a place that can be described as our future dwelling-place, it is much more than that too. The more we know about what really makes heave heaven, the more able we will be to create heaven on earth. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Believing the Unbelievable
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 30, 2023
When faced with some of the deepest challenges doubt can creep in. We can doubt that the Lord is going to somehow make it all ok; that our efforts will make any difference; that denying ourselves leads to more happiness than we can imagine. Yet the Lord calls us to believe in all of these “unbelievable” truths. If we wait until our belief is rock solid than we will end up waiting for forever; but if we have faith, and move forward with confidence, we will in the end see clearly the truth of what the Lord has told us. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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A Shift in Perspective
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 23, 2023
By default we see the world from our own point of view. This is an inescapable fact of life; but our own desires, wants, and wishes shape how we see other people and the world around us. The Lord calls us to lift our minds above our default perspective so that we can look from the Lord’s heavenly one. When seen from His point of view we will find that the world is a much better place with more opportunities than we could otherwise imagine. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Joy from Heavenly Treasures
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 16, 2023
This sermon is adapted from one written by Rev. Gerald Waters in 2010. In it we will explore where true joy comes from, and how through a life of service we can build up a never-ending supply of happiness. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Failure is an Option
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 09, 2023
No one likes to fail. We actively try to avoid failure (as we should!). But failure is also unavoidable: it is part and parcel of trying to live a better life. Our own failures are reflected in the Lord's apparent failure. On the first Easter morning, before anyone knew He had risen, it seemed obvious that Jesus had failed. And yet through that apparent failure the Lord had the opportunity to overcome death, and hell, and sin, and so achieve true and lasting success. The path through failure leads to a better future. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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It is Enough
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 05, 2023
Before the events of Easter, the Lord called His disciples together to have one final meal with them. Present at this meal were not just the good: also present was Judas, the betrayer. Jesus calls all of us, regardless of our state, to come to Him, and through repentance to be reborn. He gives us all that we need in order for this spiritual change to take place, through the Love and Wisdom He constantly offers us. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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The Humanness of God
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - March 26, 2023
Easter celebrates the Lord’s victory over hell, at a time in history when hell was at its strongest. Yet Easter was not just a moment in time: in His moment of victory the Lord conquered hell to eternity. His conquest carries on in us today, and it is able to carry on specifically because of the humanness that God took on, and that still defines Him today. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Invited to the Wedding
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - March 19, 2023
When you are invited to a wedding and reception, do you accept? What if the one who is hosting the wedding is wealthy, even a king, and the only cost to attend is your time, the only requirement that you dress appropriately? Would you not most likely readily accept if possible, and even rearrange your schedule to make it work? There would be no reason not to. And to go further, what if the one throwing the Wedding were the Lord, and to enter the wedding was to enter heaven? How much more likely we would be to accept! And yet, for some reason, the Lord tells us a parable in which the obvious does not occur, in which the invitation is refused. We too live out this parable. From it, we can learn to recognize the Lord’s invitations, and so choose to accept them. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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Fear of the Law
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - March 12, 2023
The Lord has many rules that we are to follow. One of the fundamental principles of the church is that we are to live our lives according to His laws. But with so many rules to follow it can begin to feel impossible; and if it is impossible to keep the Lord’s law, than we may start to feel we are doomed to failure. This is not the case. Although it is a challenge, the Lord is able to give us the power to keep His rules, and to even find joy in doing so. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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God With Us
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - February 19, 2023
With all the distractions of life, the many mundane activities to attend to, the daily grind that never seems to end, God can get lost in the shuffle. Some have tried to transcend all worldly concerns in order to focus entirely on God, but for many of us that is not an option. The world is too present in our lives. Thankfully the Lord does not only exist on high; He is present in the worldly stuff of life, and through repentance everyone is able to meet Him even among the day-to-day concerns. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
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